The Phoenix He Helped Create
by Lamia of the Dark
Summary: Sequel to Nothing From Nowhere. The war isn't over yet. Now that Voldemort has the prophecy, does he stand a chance against Harry Potter and will Harry regret saving Bellatrix's life? Features a CLAMPesque subplot w/ visions of mortal doom. NOW COMPLETE.
1. Bleeding In a Sink

**DISCLAIMER: All things Harry Potter belong to J.K. Rowling.**

**A/N: I hadn't actually finished writing Nothing From Nowhere yet when I started posting this. (It's finished now, though.) You might think it's weird that I started writing the sequel before I finished the first story, but I wanted to get this one started before I got distracted by my other fics.**

**Chapter 1 doesn't have any spoilers for the ending of Nothing From Nowhere, anyway. Mostly because this chapter is about Harry.**

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 1: Bleeding In a Sink -

Petunia Dursley never thought she'd find herself sneaking through her own house in the dark. Then again, she never expected to wake up hearing strange noises coming from her kitchen in the middle of the night, either.

"Harry, what are you doing?"

Her 16-year-old nephew was standing with his back to her, hunched over the kitchen counter. She heard a steady splash of liquid falling into the sink, but the water wasn't running...

"I'm being cursed," Harry answered through gritted teeth.

"I thought... they couldn't... here... there was supposed to be protection..."

"Yeah, well, _someone_'s got a direct line to me," he said darkly. "And he's allowed some else to trace along the pathway of that line with her... powers... and curse me."

Petunia couldn't help but notice that despite the state her nephew was currently in, he had consciously avoided saying the word _magic_ to her. It seemed he had untapped reserves of inner strength.

Ironically, just as she was thinking that, Harry reached his breaking point.

"Why?" he cried out to his invisible attacker. "Why are you doing this to me? I saved your life. _I saved your life!_"

His aunt could not hear the reply that whispered across his mind.

_Your mistake_.


	2. Dreaming of Screaming

**A/N: About a year has passed between the end of the last fic and the beginning of this one. The baby has already been born and is about 3 months old.**

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 2: Dreaming of Screaming -

_Black wings. __White wings._

_Shattering glass._

_White light. Black fire._

_Shattered glass._

_The serpent and the wolf._

_Shadows. _

_Red light. White fire._

_Golden apples._

Bellatrix and Voldemort woke up at the same time, the vision still playing in their minds, and rushed to the room where their infant daughter slept. The baby was fine, sleeping peacefully. Rodolphus was sleeping peacefully as well, undisturbed by their panicked entrance.

Ironically, Bellatrix's husband was one of the few people they trusted to watch over their baby when the two of them were... otherwise occupied.

They'd both collapsed from mental exhaustion after the invasion of the Potter boy's mind.

They turned and looked at each other and they both knew. The dream, the vision, whatever it was, they'd both had it. And they'd both jumped to the same conclusion. Whatever it was, it had something to do with their daughter.


	3. Wake Up

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 3: Wake Up -

_A red-haired angel, dressed in white. White wings. Golden eyes._

_A mirror._

_But his reflection is that of a woman, dressed in black. Her eyes are closed._

_He frowns. She smiles._

_The glass shatters. She is still there, on the other side of the empty frame._

_Her eyes open. They are red._

Harry woke up in a familiar bed. Not _his_ bed in his own bedroom, but the one in the room he'd once used at Sirius's house...

He wondered what that weird dream had been. Not to mention the one before it.

Then he saw the rune marks traced over his right arm. So, _that_ hadn't been a dream. He'd really been cursed, here was the proof of that.

But he didn't remember much after that. How had he gotten _here_?

And then, slowly, disjointed images came drifting back to him. He'd sent for help, meaning for the note to reach Sirius, but the person who actually came... was Snape. Harry remembered shouting "_No, don't let him in the house!_" But it had been too late. And then the curse had lifted and Harry had passed out from the pain.

He'd have to ask Sirius what had happened to the Dursleys.


	4. Vicinity of Obscenity in Your Eyes

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 4: Vicinity of Obscenity in Your Eyes -

Petunia let out a frightened whimper as the door of her cell swung open.

"Oh, shut up!" snapped Snape. "You're alive, at least, which is more than can be said for the rest of your family. Not counting Potter, of course. Don't look at me like that, I'm not the one who killed them!"

"Who..." she gasped out in a hoarse whisper. "Who killed them?"

"Ah..." Snape hesitated for a moment, then sighed and closed his eyes. "The man who killed your husband and son just so happens to be the brother-in-law of the Dark Lord's mistress." He smirked. "Not that _that_ gets him any special treatment."

Petunia looked at him for the first time since he'd entered the room and asked, "Her sister's husband?"

Snape fought back the urge to roll his eyes. Of course _this_ was the part of the conversation she'd latched onto. This woman really did have an unnatural love for gossip.

"No," he answered. "Her husband's brother. Although she _does_ have a sister whose husband is a member of the inner circle."

"So, the Dark Lord's mistress is married? Doesn't her husband object to it?"

Snape snorted. "This is the Dark Lord we're talking about. The husband's only choices in this situation are to either accept it or die. And I'm sure you'll be interested to know that there is another sister who is a member of the Order of the Phoenix."

"A _what_...?"

"The Order of the Phoenix is the organization of lightsiders who oppose the Dark Lord. A sort of underground resistence group, seeing as how the Ministry refuses to acknowledge that the Dark Lord has returned." He paused and looked at her curoisly. "Incidentally, aren't you interested at all about the reason you're being kept alive?"

"I'm being kept alive? Not just waiting to be tortured and killed?"

"You're being kept alive," Snape confirmed. "For one reason and one reason alone. I managed to convince the Dark Lord that Potter would try to rescue you."

"Harry's going to come for me?" Petunia asked, something akin to hope shining in her eyes.

Snape's dark eyes were as cold as his answer. "No."

The light in her eyes died. She looked utterly defeated. Her last desperate hope had been given and taken away in almost the same instant.

"Even if he wanted to, the Order wouldn't allow it," Snape explained. "It is too dangerous, and none of them actually know where it is that you're being kept." Quietly he added, "You're still alive. I'll do what I can to keep it that way."


	5. I've Got Pictures In My Mind

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 5: I've Got Pictures In My Mind -

_The woman dressed in black was standing with her back to him. Long waves of dark hair flowed down her back, stray locks falling over the black-feathered wings._

_She looked back over her shoulder at him and smirked. Her face was hidden in shadow, he could only just make out her evil little smile._

_She saw him looking, and she turned out her left wrist so that he could the image there._

Harry woke up. The woman in his dream, his vision, whatever it had been, she had known he was looking and she had shown him... but he hadn't seen it clearly before he woke. Was it the Dark Mark? He thought it had been but he couldn't be sure.

_White fire. Black fire._

_Shattering glass._

_A garden._

_White light._

_The garden, again._

_Black light._

_The wolf. The serpent._

_Black wings. White wings._

_A horse._

_The signpost to the land of death._

_Shattered glass._

_The dragon._

_The garden, once more._

_Golden apples._

Bellatrix woke up in her own bed, curled up next to her husband. Why was it always golden apples? That seemed oddly out of sync with rest of the dream. Vision. Whatever it was. If only she knew how to shut them out. But it was impossible. Even the Dark Lord didn't know how to shut them out. And, even more disturbing, his weren't always the same as hers, which meant this wasn't something they were sharing so much as it was something that was affecting them both. Also, his tended to be more coherent than hers, but he still couldn't ever make sense out of them...

_The dragon curled around the tree, much like the serpent in the story of Adam and Eve._

_The dragon turned to look at him and he felt the weight of the world fall on his shoulders._

_But, no. The world was held in the coils of a serpent._

_Or was it flat? And why couldn't he **remember**?_

_The wolf, hidden, chained._

_And then he was back to the dragon._

Voldemort woke up. He was alone. What _was_ it about the dragon? He wondered if Bellatrix was ahving a vision again, as well. He would have to ask her what her dream had been. Maybe they would be able to make sense of this somehow.


	6. When Angels Deserve to Die

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 6: When Angels Deserve to Die -

_For the first time she saw the figure with clarity. A single scene rather than the usual swift barrage of incoherent images._

_A man, dressed in a white button-down shirt and cream-colored slacks with white leather boots. White wings. Golden eyes. Red hair that fell in loose waves to his shoulders._

_He faced not her but to the side, into the shadows._

_"We are the same," he said. "Not opposites but reflections of one another."_

_A cool female voice replied from the shadows, "We both have black blood."_

_Then the Red Angel shattered into shards of glass and gold dust, leaving behind only a single white feather flecked with drops of dark liquid. The voice in the shadows laughed as the feather crumbled to ash._

Bellatrix woke up and reached for... she forgot whose bed she was in. But she reached for him and in the darkness her hands found his chest. Then his arms were around her and she knew from his gentle embrace, from his fingers in her hair, from the particular position of his arm around her waist, she knew that she was with her husband right now.

"Rod," she whispered, calling him by a pet name she hadn't used since before they'd been married. "I'm scared." Something she never would have admitted to Voldemort.

"It'll be alright," he said softly.

She buried her face against his shoulder and wept.


	7. How Do You Own Disorder?

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 7: How Do You Own Disorder? -

_The woman in black faced the mirror but her own image was not reflected back at her. She lifted her hand slowly. The Red Angel's reflection lifted his hand as well. She pressed her palm against the mirror's surface._

_The glass shattered._

_The woman in black and the Red Angel stood facing each other across the empty frame, her left hand pressed flat to the palm of his right._

_"We are not opposites but reflections of one another."_

_"We both have black blood."_

_Then they both turned their heads sharply toward him, as if they'd noticed him watching._

_"Hel and Sleipnir must not awaken!" they warned in unison, and the dream broke._

Harry was startled out of sleep by a baby's cry. He went down to the living room, where the sound originated from.

"Harry, come here," Sirius hissed and Harry followed his godfather into the kitchen.

"What's Tonks doing here?" Harry asked. "And why does she have a baby?"

"That's her son, Ladon."

"Landon?"

"No, Ladon," Sirius said, pronouncing the name carefully. "You remember that day when the Death Eaters stole the prophecy? Well, apparently that night Tonks had a one-night stand with Charlie Weasley..." Which would make her son about six months old now.

"Why is she staying here and not at the Burrow?"

"Because... Charlie decided he didn't want anything to do with her or the baby... Things got kind of complicated after that... And this is our family home after all..."

Harry had almost forgotten that Tonks and Sirius were second cousins. He didn't have a chance to ask for more details on the situation thought, because at that moment Kreacher skulked into the room and said, "Kreacher has a delivery. Someone has sent a present for the baby."

"Right, hand it over then," Sirius commanded, holding out his hand. "You're still not allowed to go near Tonks or the baby, got that, Kreacher?"

"Kreacher understands, master," Kreacher answered, mumbling insults under his breath as he handed over the object, which turned out to be a silver bracelet with a wolf-shaped charm. What appeared to be a yellow marble was clamped in the wolf's jaws.

They had no way of knowing it, but this bracelet was actually Fenris - The Sun. The companion piece to Midgard - The World.


	8. We Lose Ourselves But We Find It All

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 8: We Lose Ourselves But We Find It All -

_The Garden of Eden._

_No-_

_The dragon was guarding the fruit here, not offering it._

_These were not the Fruits of Knowledge. They were-_

_Golden apples._

_Yes. He knew where he was._

_The weight descended on his shoulders._

_No! he cried out silently._

He wrenched his mind out of the dream before the confusion could fall over him. He wasn't sure what it meant, but he knew now what that place in his dreams was. Bella's dreams, too. She'd mentioned the golden apples several times before. He didn't know why he hadn't thought of it before. It was kind of obvious once you realized.

Voldemort went to the cradle and lifted his sleeping baby daughter into his arms, then made his way to Bella's room. (The room she shared with Rodolphus. Well, why not? He was still her husband, after all.)

She was already awake when he got there, sitting on the edge of her bed. She took one look at his face and knew.

"You figured something out, didn't you?"

His eyes burned into hers as he explained, "That place we keep seeing, I don't know the exact _significance_ of it, but I do know that it is the garden of the Hesperides..."


	9. Dressed In Black

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 9: Dressed In Black -

"The Hesperides... are the daughters of Atlas," Bellatrix said slowly. "Atlas was the titan that held the world on his shoulders."

"Yes. In _Greek_ mythology. But in Norse mythology the world was held in the coils of a giant serpent," Voldemort informed her. Which is what had caused the confusion that always concluded his visions of the garden.

_"You still have a choice."_

What was that?

_"Take back The World." This time the voice was accompanied by a hazy image of a beautiful golden god._

She'd never had a vision while she was awake before.

Voldemort watched in stunned silence as Bella gasped and clutched at her chest, caught in the grips of a waking dream.

She lifted her head. Their eyes met and a spark flew between them. And then he was seeing it too.

_She was dressed in black. Great black wings branched out from her shoulders. Her hair flowed freely down her back. The World hung at her throat, complete and whole again._

_Across the empty frame stood her cousin Sirius, dressed as the Red Angel had been. His hair was streaked with strands of gold. White wings flowed down his back. A bracelet bearing a charm shaped like a wolf hung from his wrist._

_He wore a sarcastic smirk. She frowned back at him._

_"We're opposites," she said. "Not reflections of each other." This was different from what the woman in black had told the Red Angel in her dreams._

_"We both have black blood," Sirius returned, his smirk widening into a grin as he reached a hand toward the empty frame between them-_

_And caught it on a remaining shard of broken glass. Red drops flecked the ground between them._

_That's when it hit her. It was not **black** blood they both had, but **Black** blood._


	10. Before You Know, Awake

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 10: Before You Know, Awake -

Sirius handed the bracelet to Tonks.

_"Hurry." The golden god's voice radiated through Bellatrix's mind._

In typical Tonks fashion, the chain slipped through her fingers.

_"Decide."_

The yellow crystal sun shattered against the floorboards.

Even as Bellatrix reached out for her daughter, she felt the flare of magic and knew she was too late.

_"The window of opportunity was very small," the golden god lamented_.

When the crystal shattered, Harry realized he recognized that sound. He heard it every night in his dreams. And he'd heard it once before. That fateful night at the Minsitry of magic, just before the prophecy was snatched from his hand by Lucius Malfoy, he'd heard that _exact same_ sound.

He could feel himself slipping from consciousness into a vision, but a sudden flare of magic dragged him back to reality.

Ladon, who had just moments ago been a six-month-old baby, now appeared to be a five-year-old child.

The little boy smiled and picked up the bracelet from where it had fallen. He went to the toybox in the corner of the living room and extracted a small object, which he pushed into the wolf's now-empty mouth.

It was a charm from long-ago broken pendant that his mother had worn when she was a child. The charm was in the shape of a golden apple.

Still smiling, Ladon returned to his mother's side and fastened the bracelet around her wrist.


	11. A Smile Breaks Forth

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 11: A Smile Breaks Forth -

A similar transformation had taken place in the Dark Lord's daughter. Somehow he managed not to drop her despite the sudden change in weight as she suddenly transformed from a three-month-old baby into the form of a three-year-old child.

Unlike Ladon, who had smiled happily at his transformation, the Dark Princess began to cry.

Yes, Bellatrix was scared.

Yes, Bellatrix was confused.

But her child was reaching for her.

Voldemort could see the storm of emotions in Bella's eyes. Somehow he was not surprised that her love for their child won out over all of her fears and uncertainties.

Bella lifted the little girl from the dark Lord's arms into her own. She cuddled her daughter close as the little girl wailed and clung to her.

"Shh, Alcyone. Hush. It's alright."

Even as she was trying to reassure her child, her own worries showed clearly in her expression.

She'd had a choice, a chance to take this power - this _destiny_ - away from Alcyone. To take it onto herself. And yet she'd been too slow in making the decision...

"Bella."

She looked up at the sound of his voice. He slid his arms around her, hugging both her and their daughter close to him.

"There is no reason that you can't still protect her now."

He felt her relax against him, the tension draining from her body. She looked up at him and smiled.

With that single sentence and the simple act of holding her in his arms, he'd laid all her fears to rest. Yes, more and more he was coming to believe that love had incredible powers, indeed.

Rodolphus had not slept through all of this, of course. But he would pretend that he had.

**A/N: so now you know the daughter's name. Don't even SAY "Rayearth". Alcyone is a name that came from Greek mythology, before CLAMP ever existed! I almost named the daughter _Medusa_... but thought that might be taking Voldy's love of snakes a little TOO far.**


	12. He's Gone So Far To Find Our Hope

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 12: He's Gone So Far To Find Our Hope -

The next morning, when Harry went down for breakfast, he was surprised to find Professor McGonagall sitting in the kitchen.

"Professor, what are you doing here?" he asked.

"Sirius told me that wanted to try and get a message to Severus?" she said questioningly.

"Yeah, I did..." Harry answered slowly. That wasn't exactly what he'd meant. He'd wanted to meet with Snape in person. "You're the one who's going to...?"

Minerva gave him a tight smile. "This is where my skills come in handy." He knew that by _skills_ she meant her Animagus form.

"But isn't he at the Death Eaters' base right now? We don't even know where it is!" Harry protested.

Minerva arched one eyebrow at him. "We _do_ know where it is. That information has been kept from you, Mr. Potter, to prevent you from trying to go there."

"Yeah, I know, my _hero complex_ and all that," Harry ground out in frustration.

"The message, then...?"

"The message is 'Come to the next Order meeting'."

"That's it?" she asked in surprise.

"Yeah, and..." Harry hesitated. "And give him this."

She held out her hand and he dropped a small amulet into it. It would be easy for her to carry, even in her cat form.

"The other message is more important, so don't worry if you lose that or if you get caught and it's taken from you."

"Are you implying that it is likely I shall get caught?" she asked archly.

"No," Harry answered. "Just covering all the possibilities."

In truth, the amulet was the more important of the two, because if Snape either could not or would not attend the Order meeting, then that was the only message that was going to get through.

The amulet was actually a secret container. With Lupin's help, Harry had enchanted it to open only for Snape, so even if someone else got ahold of it, the message would be safe. And even if someone else got it open, they probably wouldn't understand the message, anyway.


	13. I Need To Seek My Innervision

**A/N: OK, so. I bet you were wondering why Harry suddenly wants to contact Snape. Well, I kind of forgot to actually post the part where that happens. (Yesterday - Sept 12, 2008 - was a freakin' BAD DAY all around. Don't ask. I will rant for 20 pages if you DO ask.) So I had to re-work that part so it fits the story AFTER ch 12.**

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 13: I Need To Seek My Innervision -

_The blue spark disappeared in the distance._

_The bright phoenix flew through the black door._

_The door slammed shut behind it, leaving the huddled figure of Severus Snape alone in the darkness._

_The object cupped between his fingers - was it a flower? - was absorbed by the reaching claws of shadows, despite his desperate attempts to shelter it in his hands._

_The familiar sound of something shattering._

_Red wings erupted from Snape's back._

_In the hollow of his throat, there was now the symbol of a bone._

Harry woke up, shivering. It was the same dream as the one he'd had last night, when he'd gone back to bed after the incident with Ladon transforming.

He retrieved his covers from where they'd fallen onto the floor and pulled them over himself, hoping that his message would reach Snape soon.

Last night, when he'd woken up after this new disturbing vision, Harry had quickly crammed his glasses onto his face and gone down to the living room. Sirius, Tonks, and Lupin had been there. Why _had_ Lupin been there? He hadn't thought to ask at the time.

They'd asked him what was wrong, but he'd just shaken his head. He'd gotten out a piece of paper and pencil and sketched out an image from his dream, the one that had bothered him the most.

"Do you know what kind of flower this is?" he'd asked, showing the sketch around.

"I think it might be a... begonia?" Tonks had put forth hesitantly. "Or, no- it's a petunia."

That's what Harry had been afraid of.

"Harry, what's wrong?" Lupin had asked, concerned.

And Harry had looked him in the eye and answered.

"I want to try and contact Snape."

And now, he only hoped that Snape would get the message before it was too late.

**A/N: Anyone care to try and interpret Harry's vision? 20 pts for trying, 50 pts if you're close 1000 pts if you get it exactly right. (I keep a record of everyone's scores in my profile)**


	14. Painting the Paintings of the Alive

**A/N: OK, I'm dropping some BIG CLUES this chapter. Anyone can tell me the true identity of the golden god after this chapter gets 75 points and a Gold Star. (The answer can be found in mythology.)**

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 14: Painting the Paintings of the Alive-

_White lightning._

_Black lightning._

_Zeus fighting Thor._

_Lightning._

_The horse._

_LIGHTNING._

_No, stay asleep._

_LIGHTNING._

_The golden god's voice in her dream. _

_LIGHTNING._

_"It is already too late for that."_

_LIGHTNING._

_Zeus fighting Thor._

"What did you dream?"

Bellatrix sighed. "Zeus fighting Thor," she answered irritably. "There was a lot of lightning, and that horse showed up again, too. You?"

"He showed me his arm," Voldemort answered. They never called Ladon by his name even though they knew it now. As if somehow they could deny the connection between her niece's child and the Red Angel that marked their visions. "On his right wrist, there is the mark of a wolf."

And on Alcyone's left wrist - and the wrist of the woman in black - there was a mark of a serpent circling the world. At first glance it could almost be mistaken for her father's Mark, the Dark Mark. But it was not. It was the brand of the Midgard serpent's avatar.

And Ladon was marked with the brand of the Fenris wolf's avatar.

And they'd been warned not to allow Sleipnir and Hel's avatars to awaken.

_"It's kind of like the four horsemen of the apocolypse, only different."_

_The horse, coming closer._

_Lightning._

_"All of my children are monsters."_


	15. Approaching Guiding Light

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 15: Approaching Guiding Light -

Snape felt something brush against his ankles. He looked down at the cat.

"Been rolling in the dirt?" he asked with raised eyebrows.

Minerva just glared at him. She'd had to cover up her distinctive markings _somehow_, and she couldn't cast proper magic while she was in her Animagus form.

"In here," Snape said, suddenly serious.

He opened a door and the two of them slipped into the small room beyond. It wasn't really likely that anyone would have come across them in the hallway, but he figured it was better to be cautious. This was the Death Eaters' base of operations, after all.

The door clicked shut and Minerva transformed back into her human form.

"Why are you here?" Snape asked bluntly, without preamble.

"I have a message for you," she answered tersely. "You're to come to the next Order meeting." And she gave him the date and time.

"Is-"

But she cut off his hopeful question with a shake of her head.

"No, Albus hasn't returned to the Order. And he won't, until the ministry admits that He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has returned, because it isn't safe for him and would risk exposing the entire Order."

"But he wants me to come to the meeting?" Snape asked, his earlier hopeful tone replaced by one of apprehension. Without Dumbledore there to vouch for him, no one in the Order trusted Snape, especially after recent events.

The Order did have limited communication with Dumbledore, although Sirius was the only one who ever came into direct contact with him.

Again she shook her head.

"Then who...?"

"Harry Potter."

And if there was one person who could convince the Order to trust Snape again, it was Harry Potter. Because Potter was the person with most reasons NOT to trust him.

A little bit of that hopeful feeling filtered back to him.

"He also asked me to give you this," Minerva said, handing Snape the amulet Harry had entrusted to her.

At first Snape wondered what the hell the amulet was supposed to be, but the moment his hand closed around it he felt the jewel melt away, leaving only the empty chain and what felt like a piece of paper.

Once Minerva departed, he unfolded the tiny square of paper and looked at it.

It was Harry's sketch of the flower from his dream, and scrawled untidily in a corner of the paper were the words: _Please take care of her for me until I can figure out how to get her out of there_.


	16. The Evergreen Luster of Your Heart

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 16: The Evergreen Luster of Your Heart -

After the paper was removed, the jewel re-materialized in its traces. Snape didn't really know what to do with it. He supposed he should give it back to Harry when he went to the order meeting, in case the boy wanted to send him any more secret messages in the future...

But, no. The spell was one-time-use only. The amulet would not open again now that the paper had been removed.

Since he hadn't been going to Order meetings, Snape was practically useless in his role as a double agent and as such had fallen out of favor with the Dark Lord. (Also, Voldemort was too preoccupied with the whole visions-of-mortal-doom situation and didn't have much attention to spare for other matters.)

So Snape had been spending a lot of time with Petunia, trying to keep her alive as he'd promised. This was made more difficult by the fact that Petunia was not making much of an effort to keep herself alive.

Today, too, he visited her in her cell. But today he had more to offer her than usual. Today he brought her hope.

"I've had a message... from Harry," he told her, using the boy's first name because he knew he couldn't stop himself from sounding spiteful if he said _Potter_. "He's asked me to take care of you until he can find a way to rescue you."

Petunia looked up at him through a screen of tears.

"He really... he really..." Her voice trailed off, choked with emotion, and she had to start again. "He really... is coming?"

"Yes, but there is no way of knowing when that will be," Snape answered, trying to let her down gently, to not get her hopes up _too_ much.

She'd already given up hope of ever getting out of here, and now the promise of being rescued was too much. Overcome with emotion, Petunia burst into tears.

Snape sighed and gathered her into his arms. He held her while she sobbed into his shoulder.


	17. From Beyond You Saw It All

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 17: From Beyond You Saw It All -

_Two indistinct winged figures lurked in the shadows at the edges of the vision._

_The Red Angel and the woman in black stood staring at each other across the empty frame._

_A carefree smile graced his features. She scowled back at him._

_"We are the same."_

_"Reflections of one another."_

_And for the first time, they named each other._

_"Alcyone Lestrange."_

_He spoke her name with reverence, savoring the beauty of the sound._

_"Ladon Lupin."_

_She spat the name as though ejecting something unpleasant from her mouth._

_He reached for her through the broken mirror._

_She gasped and turned to run._

_Bellatrix and Voldemort appeared at her side. Their arms circled her, shielding her, protecting their child._

_Someone had also appeared in front of Ladon, restraining him, pushing him away. Someone with yellow wings and the symbol of an eight-legged horse on the back of his neck. His face was hidden from sight._

_But their intervention was too late. Clutched in the fingers of the Ladon's still-reaching hand was a small number of black feathers._

_As they watched the feathers turned to blood. They watched as the blood dropped from his hand._

_There on the ground between the two groups lay the corpse of Rodolphus Lestrange._

Harry woke up. He'd guessed it before, but now he knew for sure whose child Alcyone was. She had her mother's hair and her father's eyes. And she was more alike to Ladon than her parents - at least, _one_ of her parents - knew. The two children were both three-quarters pureblood, each with one pureblood and one half-blood parent. Harry very much doubted that Bellatrix was aware of her beloved Lord Voldemort's blood status. Also, both children carried the surname of a stepfather.

Harry had realized, too, that he was not the only one affected by the visions. Ladon was having them too, and seemed to have developed a crush on Alcyone. And it seemed this latest vision showed what would come of Ladon pursuing his feelings. The awakening of Sleipnir's avatar. The death of Rodolphus Lestrange.


	18. Wasn't It Their Bed?

**A/N: I don't know if I told you this already but the chapter titles (and fic title) are all taken from System of a Down's songs. (System of a Down is one of my top 3 favorite bands of all time. The other two are AFI and Disturbed.)**

**A/N: And, yes, it is going to be totally odd writing this and Bitter Echo at the same time. But I'm going to keep writing them both anyway. (If you haven't checked out Bitter Echo yet, go do it!)**

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 18: Wasn't It Their Bed? -

Bellatrix woke up. She'd had the same dream as Harry, with only one difference. She'd seen Sleipnir's face. She knew who it was. And she knew, just from his identity, that his awakening was inevitable.

But that wasn't what bothered her the most about the dream. Ladon's crush on Alcyone, and the consequences of his reaching through what separated them, was what truly disturbed her. Ladon had to be kept away from Alcyone at all costs.

Because Bellatrix didn't want Rodolphus to die.

No, it was more than that. The happiness caused by her relationship with Voldemort had allowed her grow close to Rodolphus in a way she hadn't during the long unhappy years of their marriage, and she wanted to keep him.

"Bella?" His soft voice beside her in the dark. "Did you have another dream again?"

She didn't tell him what she had seen, but she went into his arms and allowed him to comfort her.

_The blue spark disappeared in the distance._

_Lightning flashed._

_The horse stood firmly in front of the black door._

_The phoenix settled on Snape's shoulder._

Voldemort woke up. Something had changed. Sleipnir's awakening was drawing closer, he was sure of it. He also had a good idea of what the blue spark signified. And it seemed that Sleipnir's awakening would somehow prevent Snape from awakening as Hel's avatar... or was he overanalyzing it? He would have to talk to Bella, to see what her vision tonight had been. To see if she knew anything more than he did. Her dreams gave him more pieces of the puzzle and more insight on how to put those pieces together.

He got out of bed and put on his robes and made his way to Bella's room. He entered without knocking, as usual. (He was the Dark Lord, after all. He didn't have to bother with being polite.)

He was shocked and outraged by what he saw.

Yes, Bellatrix and Rodolphus were still married. And Voldemort knew that they'd gotten closer since the start of _his_ relationship with Bella.

_**But that doesn't mean she should be kissing him.**_


	19. They're Trying To Build A Prison

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 19: They're Trying To Build A Prison -

There were scuffling sounds out in the hallway, then the cell door swung open and Snape entered, dragging another person with him by the arm.

"You're going to have some company from now on..." he said with a smirk.

Silent curious looks passed between the two prisoners.

"Shall I introduce you?" Snape asked, sounding entirely too amused by the situation. "Here we have Petunia Dursley, the aunt of Harry Potter, who is being held as bait to lure her nephew into our clutches." With his free hand he gestured to Petunia, who was huddled in a corner of the room. "And _this_ is Narcissa Malfoy, who made the mistake of arguing with the Dark Lord over whether or not her son should be allowed to join the Death Eaters. She argued _against_ letting him join."

"Oh, _right_," Narcissa snapped. "That was his official excuse but we both know that he's doing this as a way to punish my sister."

Snape snickered. "Well, can you blame him for wanting to?"

Narcissa just glared at him. Snape slammed the door shut and let go of Narcissa's arm, then went to sit next to Petunia.

"You might as well get comfortable," he called out to Narcissa. "Seeing as you're going to be in here for quite a long time..."

Narcissa defiantly remained standing for a few moments more before sliding down into a sitting position. She watched as Petunia laid her head against Snape's shoulder and the two began to hold a whispered conversation. Narcissa couldn't hear what they were saying.

"Who's her sister, and why isn't the sister being punished directly?" Petunia asked, always eager to hear the details of any situation worth gossiping about.

"Guess." Snape smirked. He watched as the metaphorical lightbulb went on over her head. "That's right," he murmured, "the Dark Lord's mistress. And he's angry with her for _kissing her husband_, of all things... and she had the nerve to say to him, 'He's my husband. I've been cheating on him with you, not the other way around.' You can see why he got mad..."


	20. For Reasons Undefined

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 20: For Reasons Undefined -

"Why, Bella?" he asked.

She knew he was angry. She didn't know how to answer.

"Why?" he asked again. "Why didn't you come to me? What is it that you get from him that I'm not giving you?"

Ah, the typical male _What's he got that I don't have?_ question. Which would indicate that this was a case of typical male jealousy. But she wasn't dealing with a typical male, and this was hardly a typical situation.

"I... I..." she stammered. She barely understood her own reasons, how could ever hope to explain it to _him_? "I just... there's things..."

There were things she couldn't share with him, because he was her master and she was his servant.

He could feel the panic rising in her. She couldn't make sense of her own actions, that much was clear to him now.

There really was a simple solution to all of this.

"You're going to sleep in my room from now on."


	21. Fear Not The Gods That Come From The Sky

**A/N: Yes, the "golden god" is Loki.**

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 21: Fear Not The Gods That Come From The Sky -

_She was kneeling before the throne of the golden god._

_"It was the right decision," Loki told her. "But you must push him out of your life completely. A child can't have three parents. Charlie Weasley had the right idea, getting out of there while he could. After all, a snake should be raised by a snake, a wolf by a wolf, a wild card by a wild card..."_

_When he said the "wild card" bit, an image of Harry and Petunia flickered briefly through her mind._

_Wait, since when was Harry Potter's muggle aunt a wild card?_

_"Since always," Loki answered although she had not spoken aloud. "She doesn't have any magic but she doesn't know whether to love it or hate it. Her alignment with dark side or light side is up in the air. That's what makes her a wild card. I **really** can't tell you much more than that. And I can't interfere directly."_

_"You don't have the power to interfere directly?"_

_He laughed. "Of course I have the power!" A look of sadness stole across the god's face. "But how could I take sides in a fight between my own children?" The avatars of their powers in the mortal realm, anyway. "And besides, what fun would it be to rig the game? I want to see how it turns out on its own..."_

_Of course, he was the Norse god of trickery and mischief. He reveled in chaos and disorder. Helping any of the avatars - or interfering directly in any way - would bring order to the chaos, making one outcome more likely than the others._

Bellatrix woke up to the sound of her daughter crying.

"What happened?" she asked, her voice thick with sleep.

"She says she's afraid of the lightning," Voldemort answered. "But it isn't raining at all..."

_Oh, God._ "She's having them too."

"What?" he asked, nonplussed.

"_The visions. She's having them, too!_"


	22. Speak With Me My Only Mind

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 22: Speak With Me My Only Mind -

"I wonder... are _all_ of the avatars having them?" Voldemort said thoughtfully.

_"No," Loki's voice answered._

They both heard it clearly even though neither of them was dreaming.

"Who isn't, then?" the Dark Lord asked, as though it were perfectly normal to have conversations with the diesembodied voices of Norse gods.

_"Snape."_

"Why only him?"

_"Because if he were to see them, they might influence the... direction... of his awakening."_

"The direction?"

_"Hel's avatar can awaken as one of two sides, the beauty... or the rot. It all depends on **her**, really." A flash of an image of a small pink flower accompanied these words. "Harry Potter's aunt, one of the wild cards in this equation..."_

"The wild cards?"

_"The other one is Harry himself... a wild card, or in this situation perhaps the term **dark horse** would be more appropriate... Sleipnir's awakening is drawing closer... it's unavoidable, really..."_

"What can we do?" Bellatrix asked, sounding desperate.

_"Ah, I can't tell you. That would be cheating." Loki's voice had taken a playful tone. He was enjoying her despair._

"Why won't you help us?" she shrieked.

_"Would you have have me favor Alcyone over the other avatars? When the real Midgard Serpent was born, **Odin threw my baby into the sea**. And my other babies... one kept hidden away, chained in a cave... one relegated to the underworld to work as gatekeeper... one kept as Odin's favored steed... All my children are monsters. I wasn't allowed to keep them, to raise them, to love them as is any parent's right... Would you have me favor one of my children over the others?"_

By the time Loki had come to the end of this little speech, Bellatrix's eyes were filled with tears.

"No," she answered.

She felt sorry for him. Even if it is a monster, it's still your child.

She didn't feel quite so sorry for the trickster god when he informed her that he'd lied to her before when he told her that she could take The World back from Alcyone. Once the orb was passed on, the new owner was stuck with it.

Hel's and Sleipnir's orbs had been broken so long ago that the metal jewelry settings had rotted away in some god-forsaken place... and the orbs had been passed on - dormant - for many generations, until they came to reside in their current owners.

Honestly, Loki had been hoping that The World would break while in Voldemort's possession, pitting Sleipnir against the Midgard Serpent, with Hel and the Fenris Wolf - possibly unawakened - on the sidelines. In fact, that's why he'd made the prophecy in the first place, to goad them toward awakening... only that hadn't gone quite as he'd planned...

**A/N: I stole the "Even if it's a monster, it's still your child" line from Parasite Eve. Great game. You should play it.**


	23. It's The Most Loneliest Day Of My Life

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 23: It's The Most Loneliest Day Of My Life -

He'd known that it was wrong, that it would end.

He'd known that he couldn't be with her, not really.

He'd known that the affection she'd shown him recently was only because she was already happy... with the man she loved.

Still, it hurt to be told all of this this directly to his face.

Still, it hurt to be told he could not see her at all anymore.

Still, it hurt to be told that he could not be a part of her life without putting Alcyone in danger.

And yet he wondered if she really didn't love him at all, if there wasn't _some_ feeling there after all...

And yet he wondered if there was actually a way he could be with her somehow...

And yet he wondered if he could still be loyal to the Dark Lord after all of this...


	24. Darts Screech By My Desires

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 24: Darts Screech By My Desires -

He knew now. The visions had provided the information clearly enough.

Harry was the avatar of Sleipnir.

He also knew that his awakening was inevitable, unless he could find a way to keep Ladon from trying to reach Alcyone.

But Ladon was simpleminded. Or perhaps _singleminded_. He'd seen Alcyone - her fully-awakened form, the woman in black - in his dreams, and he'd fallen in love.

As his opposite reflection, Alcyone despised Ladon and feared what his reaching would cause.

Unlike the Dark couple and their daughter, Harry and Ladon kept their visions secret from everyone, even each other. Although they both knew the other was also having them.

Harry knew that, as he was now, he could do nothing against Ladon's powers. If he wanted to stop him, he would need his own powers - the orb of Sleipnir that slept within him - to awaken.

He wished he could just _tell_ Ladon not to do it, but how do you explain to a six-month-old in a five-year-old's body that love is bad?


	25. Was That The Cause Of Your Surprise?

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 25: Is That The Cause of Your Surprise? -

_A chessboard._

_People lined up like pieces._

_The black queen versus the white king._

_The knight's move._

_White squares. Black squares._

_It is the perfect playing field._

_The rook, ready for intercepting._

_The black-moving bishop, next to be lost._

_Red feathers rain down._

_Convulsion of nature._

_Another pawn is taken._

_Seven completed._

_The knight's move._

_Bottomless trap hole._

_The rook is taken out._

_A single pawn sneaks to the other side._

_Inferno reckless summon._

_The rook returns to the field._

_Ante._

_The white knight falls prey to the black white-moving bishop._

_Malevolent nuzzler._

_The white queen is taken by the black knight._

_Check._

_The white king tries to run._

_Check. And mate._

**A/N: 50 pts if you know what I did in this chapter. And I don't mean about the chess game in the vision.**


	26. May I Please Remain In This Space?

**A/N: Sadly, no one got it right. The correct answer was NAMES OF YU-GI-OH CARDS. Watch for it this time, during the vision.**

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 26: May I Please Remain In This Space? -

The visions were coming more frequently. When she slept, when she woke. It didn't seem to matter anymore. Ever since she'd spoken to Loki directly, it was like this.

Was this the Chaos God's idea of helping? Of giving an unfair advantage to one of the avatars?

But Bella didn't understand the visions. Mostly they just gave her a headache. She should have known better than to beg favors from the god of mischief.

_Black and white._

_Red. Yellow._

_Soul of the pure._

_"Stay away!"_

_The chessboard. She stands in the black-moving bishop's position on the black side of the board._

_Morphing jar._

_Lightning._

_The blue spark disappearing._

_Bark of dark ruler._

_The horse. The phoenix. The kirin._

_My body as a shield._

Then she is awake and he is there. He is there, and their child is there, both of them looking at her with worried eyes. She scoops her daughter into her arms and leans against the dark Lord's shoulder. He wraps his arms around her, holding them both.

"I love you," she whispers, her voice rasping with tiredness. She gets no rest even in sleep. But here in his arms where she and their child are safe is the only place she wants to be right now.

She doesn't hear her daughter's returning whisper - "Love you too, Mommy" - because she is already sliding back into the world of dreams.

-tbc-

**Reviews: love.**


	27. Clock Men, For They Will Fall

**A/N: In the chapter title, I'm pretty sure "clock" was meant as a verb not a noun. Then again, I didn't write the song it came from. (Serj Tankian did.)**

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 27: Clock Men, For They Will Fall -

_White light. Black smoke._

_White wings. Black wings._

_White fire. Black fire._

_The blue spark disappearing in the distance._

_The phoenix crumbling to ashes._

_Red wings. Yellow wings._

_The chance to interfere._

_The duty to protect._

_He could feel it, even in the dream. Ladon's reaching._

_If he actually **touched** something... the thing he was reaching toward..._

This time Harry did not wake up.

Sleipnir did.

-tbc-

**Reviews: love.**


	28. Making Two Possiblities A Reality

**A/N: Only a few chapters left.**

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Chapter 28: Making Two Possibilities A Reality -

It was her. The woman in black. Nearly idenitical to her mother, except for the burning red eyes that were just like her father's. Not to mention the black wings.

She wasn't actually dressed in black. She was wearing white.

Then again, they weren't dreaming this time. She was actually standing right there in front of them.

"They're awake," Alcyone said sadly. "Everyone. Hel, Sleipnir, all of the avatars..."

It had happened during the Order meeting. Harry had felt Ladon reaching - through the world of dreams and visions - toward Alcyone, and Sleipnir had awakened within him to prevent Ladon from using his powers that way. But Sleipnir's awakening had caused Ladon's powers to awaken further and being in close proximity to this chain-awakening had been enough to stir the dormant Hel within Snape into wakefulness, this final awakening brining Ladon's and Alcyone's powers to their full realization.

The final battle was coming.

Soon.

-tbc-

**Reviews: love.**


	29. If You Die Then I Want To Die With You

-- The Phoenix He Helped Create --

- Final Chapter: If You Die Then I Want To Die With You -

White fire. Black fire.

This wasn't a premonition. This was real. This was all that is light versus all that is evil. This was chaos. This was confusion. This was everyone fighting for their lives.

Ladon's powers raged out of control, wreaking havoc on both sides. He was the only one of the four avatars who lacked sufficient focus to control said powers. Harry and Snape were too busy trying to protect the people they cared about to attempt engaging Ladon in battle. And normal magic was no match for the avatars' powers.

So Ladon strode forth unhindered. With his long red hair and white wings, he looked like an angel. But he was an embodiment of singleminded chaos, exactly the thing that Loki had been hoping to create.

"_Stay away!_" Alcyone screamed as Ladon approached.

Her parents had stayed close to her throughout the battle, but she couldn't shield them _and_ fight Ladon at the same time.

Alcyone spread her wings and took to the sky above. Ladon followed, but she quickly discovered that she had underestimated the scope of his powers. It seemed that no matter how much high they went, they were still too close... Her parents were still in danger.

"Die! DIE, LADON!" Alcyone shouted in anger and frustration. "Look what you're doing to everyone! Some of those people down there are YOUR friends and family! Don't you love them at all?!"

_I love you_.

He did not speak aloud. He never had, at any point in his short existence. Neither did he communicate the sentiment in a coherent thought. But it radiated from every fiber of his being.

"_If you love me then die!_" Alcyone shrieked. "_If you love me then die for me!_" Tears streamed like diamond trails down her porcelain cheeks as she reached out her left hand toward him. This was the moment they had both been dreaming of for so long, she with dread and he with longing. "Die with me," she whispered.

This battle was the shattered mirror of their dreams. Ladon closed the distance between them and placed the palm of his right hand flat against her left. Their powers flared and the brands on their arms came alive with magic. Fenris danced with Midgard across their connected wrists.

And the battlefield below was scattered with black feathers and white feathers as their bodies fell back down to the earth.

"_The phoenix he helped create, out of control boy without a dad shot the gun that started my life while I drove him with a .45._" - System of a Down, "Soil"

-end-

**Reviews: love.**


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